Canadian Life Insurance Companies Cover Death Due to Earthquake

illinois earthquake

Did you feel the earthquake that hit the U.S. eastcoast on August 23, 2011 at 1:51 p.m. EST?

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 5.8 magnitude quake for 45 seconds just 135 Km southwest of Washington D.C. at a depth of 6 km.

“This is one of the largest earthquakes on the east coast in quite a while, in many decades at least,” USGS spokeswoman Lucy Jones told CNN. “It’s not unprecedented. But it’s one of the largest we’ve had there.”

According to John Ebel, director of the Boston College Weston Observatory, “It’s not an unexpected location for an earthquake.”

Unlike earthquakes that occur along a fault line, the Virginia earthquake occurred in the middle of a tectonic plate, due to pressures building up along the edges of the plate, Ebel told The Boston Globe.

A quake felt so close to home, really puts in perspective just how vulnerable we are in Canada to natural disaster, even though one of this size only happens once a decade. It makes you think, how prepared are you and your family for the big one?

Along with regular emergency preparedness, part of your preparation should include life insurance.

Earthquakes are among the most expensive natural disasters, along with floods and windstorms. Earthquakes accounted for 30% of all damage by natural disasters from 1950-2001. Howver, they account for only 9% of the human cost, paling in comparison to famine, which killed 42% of people, but accounts for only 4% of the total damage over those years.

While only 75,252 lives were lost per year in the 90s, as opposed to 86,328 annually in the 80s, an average of 211 million people a year touched by natural disaster in the 90s — up from 147 million in the 80s.

There are three times more natural disasters now than there ever were in the 1960s and the economic impact has increased by a factor of nine over the same period.

With the prevelence of natural disasters skyrocketing and the amount of lives effected increasing by the decade, one can’t help but think of how to protect their family’s future in case they find themselves caught in nature’s fury.

The good news is, all five major Canadian insurance companies we surveyed will cover death in the event of a natural disaster. The one caveat is, the natural disaster cannot occur in a place that already has a travel exclusion–like a war zone.

The most recent earthquakes to hit the globe are as follows:

       MAG  UTC DATE-TIME     LAT        LON    DEPTH  REGION
MAP 2.5   2010/06/23 17:59:11 32.565 -115.693 7.2     BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 5.0 2010/06/23 17:41:42 45.862 -75.457 18.0 ONTARIO-QUEBEC BORDER REGION, CANADA
MAP 2.5 2010/06/23 16:12:29 32.709 -115.957 3.2 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 2010/06/23 15:23:36 33.353 -116.843 10.4 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.8 2010/06/23 13:27:01 32.663 -115.958 5.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.8 2010/06/23 13:23:02 44.446 148.901 45.4 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.0 2010/06/23 12:34:01 32.319 -115.510 2.2 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 2.8 2010/06/23 11:32:24 17.914 -68.146 61.0 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 3.1 2010/06/23 08:39:05 32.697 -115.946 3.1 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 2010/06/23 08:33:42 35.488 -120.031 4.9 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.1 2010/06/23 07:31:39 58.797 -150.566 16.4 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 2.6 2010/06/23 02:13:34 53.913 -163.502 24.9 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.7 2010/06/23 01:57:09 29.510 140.073 144.6 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 4.4 2010/06/23 01:33:39 17.434 -95.267 113.2 OAXACA, MEXICO

Get your own free insurance quote at our Term Life Instant Quote Page, or call the office at 1-866-899-4849.

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  • LSM Insurance
    June 24, 2010 at 9:24 am

    Thanks for the note Frank!

  • Frank Atkinson
    June 24, 2010 at 7:49 am

    It is nice to hear about the Canada life insurance, giving insurance benefits to victims of earthquake.